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State of European Angels
Report 2023
State of European Angels
Report 2023
Download the full report

The annual deep dive into the angel investment climate of Europe.
The report for this year will launch in fall 2024.
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2023

About the report

This report, initiated by Ash Pournouri and Andreas Grape (Nordic Angels), along with BCG, embodies a comprehensive exploration and detailed data aggregation across the European startup and private market ecosystem. The objective is to map, promote, and unify the stakeholders within this ecosystem to enhance its overall bandwidth and leverage. Within the scope of this report, an 'angel' is defined as any business angel contributing to the startup and private market as an investor, board member, advisor, or through any other means that involve investing time, money, or effort to foster the growth of the startup scene. The following is an excerpt of key findings from the research and is provided to offer a glimpse into the comprehensive insights contained within the full report.

Europe

Startup Impact: Changing Society and Boosting Economies
01

Startups drive societal change and economic prosperity

20%

Smaller entities, including startups, represent 20% portion of patent applications – European patent office

50%

Half of all new jobs in OECD countries are created by companies founded in last 5 years

7.6

Trillon
USD

The value of the global startup ecosystem value surpasses the national GDP of major economies like France and Germany

Sources: European Patent Office, OECD, Dealroom, IMF, Startup Genome 2023, BCG Analysis
Startups drive societal change and economic prosperity
02

Angel investors support startups across their entire lifecycle journey

Sources: Dealroom, Preqin, BCG Analysis
europe a world leader in early stage investing
03

Europe commands 30%+
of global seed funding

and has 440+ unicorns
across 65 cities

Sources: Dealroom, BCG Analysis
Europe is the third largest region for vc investments behind usa and asia
04

Europe has gained market share from 13% to 19% in past decade

and is the third largest region behind Asia and North America

Sources: Dealroom; BCG Analysis
Total VC investments increased - 6x between 15-22 in Europe
05

2021 was a record year for VC investments in Europe

Sources: Dealroom, BCG Analysis
2021-2022: Early-Stage Investments Rises, Late-Stage VC Funding declines
06

2021-2022 early stage investment rises as late stage funding declines

Sources: Dealroom, BCG Analysis
The top four European markets represent 72% of total funding
07

67%

of funding is accounted for by four countries

Sources: Dealroom; BCG analysis
Fintech, Enterprise Software & Health dominates early stage funding
08

Europe is a world leader in early stage investing

Top 5 sectors for early investing in Europe

fintech

22%

health

15%

energy

13%

Transportation

8%

Food

6%

Sources: Dealroom; BCG analysis

Nordics

The Nordics are a successful ecosystem in Europe
09

A successful track record of building unicorns

6.1x

Is how much the number of Nordic unicorns grew with in the past five years, compared to Europe's growth of 3.6 times.

12%

Of the total European venture capital was invested in the Nordics during 2022,  while their share of European GDP was only 8%.

61

Unicorns are represented by the Nordics, showcasing their vibrant track record in building successful startups.

Sources: Dealroom, IMF, BCG Analysis
Highly Competitive and Innovative
10

And Nordics showcase a strong potential to continue doing so

World Competitiveness Ranking, 2023

Denmark: #1
Sweden: #8
Finland: #11
Norway: #14
Iceland: #16

Ranking on Global Innovation Index, 2023

Sweden: #2
Finland: #6
Denmark: #8
Norway: #19
Iceland: #20
Sources: Desktop research, IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2023, Global Innovation Index 2023
Sweden's contributions to Nordic VC investments
11

Over

50%

of Nordic VC investments are led by Sweden

Sources: Dealroom, BCG Analysis
VC investment growth in the nordics
12

Investment boom in Nordics driven by late stage mega-rounds

Sources: Nordics Scale-ups, Desktop research, Dealroom 2023

Sweden

Sweden Takes the Lead in European Impact Startup Investments
13

Sweden led investments in impact startups in 2021 compared to other European countries

Sources: Dealroom, BCG analysis
Sweden Takes the Lead in European Impact Startup Investments
14

418

EUR per capita

propelled Sweden into the forefront of impact startup investments

Sources: Dealroom - Sweden Tech Ecosystem
Composition of the startup community
15

Members of the Swedish Startup Ecosystem

100k

All ecosystem
members

All ecosystem members, such as startup founders, angel investors, executives, and mentors/advisors, participate in the startup ecosystem.

13k

Angel and
founders

Angel investors and founders play a key role in building startups. While founders establish and lead startups, angels offer vital networking and expertise for their success.

0.1k

Top 100 angel investors

The Top ~100 angel investors represent a distinguished group of individual investors who are either well established profiles and/or achieved substantially more than average realised returns.

Sources: Expert interviews; Database triangulations

Five key enablers supporting early-stage investing in the Nordics

Startup Culture

Strong heritage of unicorns and startups which contributes to hubs’ access to talent, expertise and capital.

Hub Networks

Nordics with significantly higher R&D spend as % of GDP vs. EU average driven by one of the highest global levels of public funding.

Environment

IMD’s World Competitiveness Ranking places Nordic countries high driven by efficient business legislation and societal framework.

Sector Hotspot

Nordics have developed significant lead relative to Europe in niche and growing sectors such as gaming.

Innovation

Nordics with significantly higher R&D spend as % of GDP vs. EU average driven by one of the highest global levels of public funding.

Startup Culture

Strong heritage of unicorns and startups which contributes to hubs’ access to talent, expertise and capital.

Hub Networks

Strong heritage of unicorns and startups which contributes to hubs’ access to talent, expertise and capital.

Environment

IMD’s World Competitiveness Ranking places Nordic countries high driven by efficient business legislation and societal framework.

Sector Hotspot

Nordics have developed significant lead relative to Europe in niche and growing sectors such as gaming.

Innovation

Nordics with significantly higher R&D spend as % of GDP vs. EU average driven by one of the highest global levels of public funding.

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